Duroe named 2005 USA Wrestling Freestyle Coach of the Year

Mike Duroe of Iowa City, Iowa has been named 2005 Freestyle Coach of the Year by USA Wrestling. This is the first time that Duroe has received this prestigious award

Duroe was a coach for the 2005 U.S. Freestyle World Team, which placed eighth in the standings and featured two medalists, competing in Budapest, Hungary. Duroe has coached numerous U.S. World-level teams, both in men's freestyle and women's freestyle, as a volunteer coach and also as a staff member for USA Wrestling. He was on the staff of the last three U.S. Olympic men's freestyle coaching teams.

Along with Lou Rosselli of Edinboro, Pa., Duroe has been named by USA Wrestling to serve as a 2006 U.S. Freestyle World Team coach, working at the Wrestling World Championships in Guangzhou, China in the fall.

Duroe is the head wrestling coach at Cornell College, a Div. III school in Iowa. He served as an interim coach in 2005-06, and accepted the full-time position this spring. He was previously the coach of the Hawkeye Wrestling Club and the administrative assistant for the Univ. of Iowa wrestling program. He has extensive coaching experience on the high school, college and international levels.

Duroe served in two professional coaching positions for USA Wrestling, the national governing body. From 1998-2000, he was USA Wrestling's Freestyle Developmental Coach. In 2001, Duroe served as USA Wrestling's Freestyle Resident Coach, working with the elite men's freestyle wrestlers at the U.S. Olympic Training Center.

As National Developmental Coach, Duroe was responsible for the responsible for developing age-group freestyle wrestlers. He also managed USA Wrestling's women's wrestling programs, including serving as the Head Women's National Coach.

Under Duroe's leadership, the United States was successful in age-group World Championships in freestyle wrestling. The highlight of his efforts with the women's program came in 1999, when the United States won the World Team Title in women's wrestling.

Prior to joining USA Wrestling's national staff, he coached U.S. teams on the national and international level in men's and women's wrestling. He served as the head coach of three U.S. Women's World Teams (1995-97). Duroe served as head coach of the women's team at the 1997 Pan American Championships. He also was an assistant coach for the 1996 Pan American Championships men's team. Duroe was also the head coach of the 1995 Cadet World Team. He also served as a coach at four U.S. Olympic Festivals (1989-90, 1993-94).

Duroe served as head coach at Northern Michigan Univ. from 1980-85, and assistant coach from 1978-80. During his tenure at Northern Michigan, he tutored 27 All-Americans and three national champions. Duroe was also the coach for the Wildcat Wrestling Club at Northwestern Univ. from 1985-86 and an assistant wrestling coach for the Univ. of Pennsylvania from 2001-2003.

Duroe served as the head coach at New Trier High School in Illinois from 1986-98, where he led his team to four conference and five regional team titles.

As an athlete, Duroe was a two-time regional champion for Drake Univ. He served as captain of Drake's team for three years and has been inducted into the Drake University Wrestling Hall of Fame. Duroe competed on the national level in freestyle in the early 1980s. He was a three-time national freestyle placewinner, and was the 1983 AAU National champion.

USA Wrestling will be announcing major award winners each day this week on TheMat.com.